The GumTree Museum of Art
Tupelo museum names Gaines

'08 Shining Star

• The GumTree Museum has honored
her as an artist and a patron of the arts.

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

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BY M. SCOTT MORRIS

TUPELO - Lee County has another star, and it's not in the sky. The GumTree Museum of Art recently presented Lucy Gaines with the 2008 Shining Star of the Arts Award.

"Not only is Lucy a patron," said Tina Lutz, museum director, "but she is also an accomplished visual artist."

Gaines, who learned of the honor on Friday, is a past chairwoman and current member of the museum's advisory board. In 2003, she created the poster for the GumTree Festival of the Arts. "Lucy has won numerous awards at local
and regional juried art shows," Lutz said.

Her work has been shown at Staggs Interiors in Tupelo, Southside Art Gallery in Oxford and Southern Breeze Gallery in Jackson. Her work also has been displayed in Destin, Fla.

"I don't do exact things. That's not what I'm about," Gaines said. "You can use a camera to do that, as far as I'm concerned."

She's a member and a former board member of the Mississippi Art Colony. She belongs to the National Association of Women in the Arts, and she's a member and past president of Art Wave.

"I think it's the job of the artist to see beauty wherever you find it," she said. "That's what I try to do, anyway."

A Potts Camp native, Gaines and her husband, Bobby, live in Tupelo. They have three adult children.

Gaines joined past winners Jim and Charlotte Westbrook, Shawn Brevard, Beverly Clement and Margaret Anne Murphey.